Art

The East Lansing Art Festival returns this weekend for its 51st run. The two-day event in the city’s downtown core features more than 180 artists and musicians. For many long-time attendees, the East Lansing Art Festival signals the unofficial start of summer.

Michigan has just over 13,000 children in its foster care system. Most are living in licensed homes, but many live with relatives who are either licensed or unlicensed to provide care. Still others are in child caring institutions.

May is National Foster Care Month and as part of that observance, one mid-Michigan agency is sponsoring an exhibition of artwork made by foster care children in search of adoption.

Earlier this year, we spoke briefly with Donna Kaplowitz about the workshop “The Art of the Selfie: How Selfies Create Confidence.” The workshop encouraged young girls to explore their understanding of beauty and boost self esteem through selfies.

It’s Wednesday and time for our Neighbors in Action segment, where we feature people and organizations working to make our community a better place. Today we have an update on Art for Charlie, the East Lansing-based non-profit that works to improve hospice care for children and bereavement services for families who have lost a child.

If you live, work or just drive through Meridian Township, you’ve probably noticed the large metal sculpture in the roundabout at Marsh and Hamilton Roads. The work, entitled “Meridius Prime,” is a 14-foot tall piece commemorating the Michigan Meridian, the north-south baseline by which the state was surveyed in the 19th century. The sculpture is part of a plan to install public art that relays a community’s “sense of place.” The artwork is a project of the Lansing Economic Area Partnership.

Comic lovers from across the state will converge in East Lansing this week for the annual MSU Comics Forum. This year’s event features an artist alleyway, panel discussions and keynote speaker Stan Sakai.

How do you make science fun and approachable for youth? One theory is to use hip hop. The project Science Genius BATTLES (Bring Attention to Transforming Teaching, Learning and Engagement in Science) attempts to do that.

A new book of photography explores the pastime of basketball at its most basic level - the hoop. The book “hoop: the american dream” is filled with pictures of baskets from around the U.S.. The books creator, photographer Robin Layton, captures hoops nailed to trees, beneath highway underpasses, and the childhood baskets of various basketball stars. Current State’s Emanuele Berry spoke with Layton about creating the book.

Thursday evening, WKAR’s Community Cinema event will feature a preview of the film “Medora.” The documentary tells the story of a struggling Indiana basketball team. Emanuele Berry spoke with Davy Rothbart, one of the film's co-producers, and Dylan McSoley, a former Medora High School basketball player who is featured in the film.

Say “impressionist art” and you’re likely to think of the Europeans like Monet, Manet, Renoir, Degas, and Cezanne. But a number of American artists fit in that category, too. In Jackson, the Ella Sharp Museum has opened an exhibition called “American Impressionism: The Lure of the Artists’ Colony”. It’s on loan from the Reading Public Museum in Pennsylvania.